Scene and Heard: Scene's News Blog

Last Commissioners Meeting Filled With Contract Craziness

Peter Lawson Jones had to finish a bunch of contracts before doing more acting.

With the clock ticking down to the installation of Cuyahoga County’s new government, the ink was flying at the county commissioners’ final two sessions. They signed off on some 150 contracts, some of which they presumably read.

The transition team of County Executive-elect Ed FitzGerald is combing through each of them, just in case any suspicious plumbing jobs or massage parlors earned last-minute stamps of approval. One questionable contract with a former county employee was removed from the commissioners’ agenda, and a request was made to delay several appointments until the new government is on board.

“We went through the contracts one by one, and some of them we don’t yet know what they are,” says Matt Carroll, leader of FitzGerald’s transition team. “The contracts do allow an exit within 30 days. That provides an out for any contract deemed inappropriate by the new government.”

That means contracts signed during the final commissioners’ meeting, held December 2, could theoretically be reversed on the new government’s first day in office.

There is no available do-over, however, for the medical mart contracts, the last of which was the definitive agreement between the county and the City of Cleveland that was executed separately from the others on December 1. More news on the med mart just as soon as anyone involved agrees to talk about it.